Does anyone know of a company that offers/will offer a collar/foot for the new 70-200 F/4? I'd rather buy one that has an arca-swiss foot than spend the crazy expensive Nikon price for their collar and then an additional arca-swiss attachment foot.

smcphotos wrote:
Does anyone know of a company that offers/will offer a collar/foot for the new 70-200 F/4? I'd rather buy one that has an arca-swiss foot than spend the crazy expensive Nikon price for their collar and then an additional arca-swiss attachment foot.

I'm sure really right stuff and kirk photo will have one in the next couple months or so. Keep checking there websites for any news. Email them to see if they are going to make one.

Wow, for $40 that might be worth a try . . . . looks solid enough, but you really can't tell until you get one and see it in your hand. Hopefully it has some sort of low friction liner that won't scratch up the paint on the 70-200/4.

Might actually be built in the same factory,
but I doubt it.
If you don't like it you could just call it a FleaCollar.

I've compared images of the two and they definitely are different. The Nikon seems to have four high spots along the inner diameter that grip the lens. The third party appears to be smooth on the ID. The locking knobs are completely different and the Nikon has white dots to indicate rotational position while the generic does not.

Tough to tell how well it will work - somebody needs to be a guinea pig and give it a go, though unless you have both it will be impossible to know if it's better/same/worse than the Nikon one.

I was kind of wondering if Kirk or RRS would make a replacement collar for this lens as well. I did a quick check to see if they offered a replacement for the Canon version, (which also uses a similar optional collar), and it appears that they do not. This leads me to think that if the Nikon collar is of good quality neither company may see fit to offer a replacement. We’ll just have to wait and see.

bgorum wrote:
I was kind of wondering if Kirk or RRS would make a replacement collar for this lens as well. I did a quick check to see if they offered a replacement for the Canon version, (which also uses a similar optional collar), and it appears that they do not. This leads me to think that if the Nikon collar is of good quality neither company may see fit to offer a replacement. We’ll just have to wait and see.

that's "local build"

you need to give both outfits just a little time to mull the situation. RRS will most likely be the first with kirk following after they see how to do it from RRS then add their flavor to it.

that's not too hard to do. it will be 2 parts. both of them machined rather then cast. the base/foot (in fact its already available and has been for years now) and has the AS portion integrated into the design making it somewhat lighter. yes it will be substantially better overall then the original which is a 1 piece integrated assy.

The overall manufacturing quality seems to be on par with the third-party knock-offs I've seen for the Canon lenses, and not quite as good in terms of materials or finish as Canon's own collars. There's about a 2.5mm difference in the ID between the RT-1 and the Canon Tripod Ring A(B) with the Canon being smaller - not quite close enough to allow using the Canon collar on the Nikon lens.

The combination of the rather coarse flocking on the ID of the Nikon collar and the texture of the lens finish produces a result not unlike fingernails on a blackboard (but at a much lower pitch) when the lens is rotated in the collar.

Those minor issues aside, the collar does fit firmly and supports the lens rigidly with no flex or play whatsoever, which is exactly what one wants from a tripod collar, so I feel it was worth the money.